June 09, 2000

Thomas Adams Receives Distinguished Teaching Award
The Distinguished Teaching Award, presented annually by the campus division of the Academic Senate during the spring quarter, was given to Professor Thomas Adams of the Department of Animal Science. The award recognizes remarkable teaching ability. Adams has been on the UC Davis faculty for 19 years. He teaches courses in reproductive physiology to students interested in a variety of fields, including medicine and veterinary medicine. His research program focuses on reproductive issues of livestock. Adams is known for mentoring his own graduate students and postdoctoral researchers and also for offering assistance to undergraduates and graduate students from other disciplines. Asked for an example of good teaching, one graduate student responded: "Spend one hour in a class taught by Professor Tom Adams. He defines teaching at its best!" Awards also were presented to Patricia Moran, professor of English, and Dean Simonton, professor of psychology.


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Julian Alston Elected AARES President
Professor Julian Alston, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, was elected president of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Inc. for 2001. As president-elect this year, he is planning the annual AARES conference to be held in Adelaide, Australia's premier wine-producing region. Several UC Davis faculty and graduate students will participate. Founded in 1957, AARES encourages study, research, discussion and extension in the discipline of agricultural and resource economics in order to promote the efficient development of agricultural and natural resources.


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Barbara Shawcroft Receives Betonac Prize
Design professor Barbara Shawcroft, Department of Environmental Design, is the recipient of the Betonac Prize for her three-dimensional structural work. The competition involves a two-step process. In step one, an international jury selects artists for inclusion in the competition; in step two, the prize money is awarded to one artist. The Betonac Prize is awarded every four years. According to Shawcroft, the purpose of the competition is to create a textile artwork with interweaving threads and transparency. She will travel to Belgium for the competition. Shawcroft has created public site-specific works for the Bay Area Rapid Transit Embarcadero Station and Three Embarcadero Center in San Francisco. She has conducted workshops in Finland, Switzerland and Austria and has investigated visual expressions of bubble formations and their mathematical components. In 1994, Shawcroft was awarded the Gold Medal prize in Italy for a bubble formation prototype in steel wire.


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Jim McHenry Presented Lifetime Achievement Award
Weed science emeritus Jim McHenry, Department of Vegetable Crops, was presented a Lifetime Achievement Award by professional land managers from California and the West at a recent forest-management conference in Redding. He was recognized for contributions to forest vegetation management. McHenry developed many of the weed-management principles used today in forest plantations. Among his publications are papers on poison oak and blackberry control and identification and the earliest work on the control of perennial pepperweed.


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Mikal Saltveit Elected ASHS Fellow
Professor Mikal Saltveit, Department of Vegetable Crops, was elected a Fellow of the American Society for Horticultural Science. Fellows are elected based on their contributions in their area of specialization and to the society. Saltveit received the ASHS Most Outstanding Research Paper Award an unprecedented three times. He currently serves as chair of the ASHS Publications Committee, is a member of the ASHS Board of Directors, is an associate editor and is president-elect of the ASHS research division. Saltveit is an internationally recognized expert on the postharvest physiology and technology of horticultural crops. He joined the UC Davis faculty 17 years ago and currently serves as director of the Mann Laboratory and director of the UC Postharvest Program. He maintains an active research program on the physiological effects of the abiotic stresses of chilling and wounding on horticultural crops. His current research focuses on the molecular basis by which heart shock increases chilling tolerance and also prevents wound-induced increases in phenolic metabolism.


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Peter Havel Wins Investigator Award
Assistant researcher Peter Havel, Department of Nutrition, was selected as recipient of the 2000 American Physiological Society Shih-Chun Wang Young Investigator Award. The $12,000 award was established in 1998 in memory of Shih-Chun Wang to recognize an individual demonstrating outstanding promise in the field of physiological sciences research. Havel is a UC Davis graduate. His research is focused on two interrelated diseases of major medical and economic importance, diabetes and obesity. He is studying the role of the autonomic nervous system in regulating pancreatic hormone (insulin and glucagon) secretion and intermediary metabolism, as well as examining the mechanisms responsible for impaired defenses against hypoglycemia in humans and animals with diabetes. Several of Havel's projects investigate the regulation of secretion and the actions of the recently discovered adipocyte hormone, leptin, which is involved in modifying energy balance via its effects on feeding behavior and energy expenditure. His work in this area includes nutritional studies in humans and animals as well as in vitro experimentation.


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Nigel Allan Awarded Smithsonian Institution Fellowship
Professor of geography Nigel Allan, Landscape Architecture Program, Department of Environmental Design, was awarded a Smithsonian Institution Fellowship for research in the Himalayan areas of Pakistan, India and Nepal. Allan's research, now in its fourth decade, deciphers the patterns exhibited in mountain societies and habitat as these areas are incorporated into the nation-state. As a cultural geographer and area studies specialist, Allan is interested in nature-society relations, especially in the South Asia Mountain rimland. He joined the Landscape Architecture faculty in July 1995 after serving in UC Davis' Geography Department as a faculty member and chair. Allan's latest book, Karakorum Himalaya: A Bibliography, is an outgrowth of his work promoting the Karakorum mountains between Pakistan and India as a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site.


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Hossein Farzin Named APRU Fellow
Associate professor Hossein Farzin, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, was selected UC Davis/Association of Pacific Rim Universities Fellow for 2000. Fellows from approximately 25 APRU universities will interact with leading academic, business and government experts on topics of maintenance and enhancement of regional ecosystems and sustainable economic development. Specific topics include integrated watershed management, coastal zone management and pollution control. Farzin's fields of interest include environmental and natural resource economics, development economics, microeconomic theory, risk and uncertainty. He recently was appointed associate editor of the Review of Development Economics, an international journal published by Blackwell, Oxford.


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April Kangas Receives Walker Award
Advising associate April Kangas, Division of Textiles & Clothing, was presented the Walker Award at a formal ceremony attended by award founder Harry Walker, a former master adviser for the college'e Exploratory Program, CA&ES dean Neal Van Alfen and many friends and co-workers. Established in 1991, the award honors staff advisers in the college who assist students with decisions regarding majors, career options and academic direction. There is at least one staff adviser in each department of the college. Walker set up the award program to honor and encourage this segment of advisers who, he feels, often are overlooked. Candidates are nominated by students and interviewed by a committee including peer advisers, faculty advisers and administrators. Students commended Kangas for her active role in networking students with UC Davis alumni. Kangas graduated from UC Davis in 1989 with a B.S. in textiles and clothing. She has been a staff adviser in the division for six years.


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44th Annual Weed Day
Annual Weed Day will be held Thursday, July 13, 2000, on the UC Davis campus. Pest control advisors, farm advisors, chemical company cooperators, college faculty, students and regulatory officials have the opportunity to learn about current weed science research at UC Davis. Weed Day begins at 7:30 a.m. Weed control studies will be shown and discussed in these areas: aquatic weeds, tomatoes, sugar beets, grapes, rice, container and field-grown ornamentals, yellow starthistle, yellow and purple nutsedge, Russian thistle, perennial pepperweed, simulated drift on crops, weed biology and ecology, turf and herbicide-resistant crops. Pre-registration: $20 On-site registration: $25 Student registration: $7 Deadline: July 5, 2000



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MFA Exhibition
The 2000 MFA Exhibition is underway at the Art Foundry Gallery in Sacramento. Four graduating students of the textile arts and costume design graduate program are displaying their works at 1025 R Street. Maya Kabat's work consists of two- and three-dimensional pieces, revolving around natural cycles of birth, death, growth and deterioration. George Chen's textile art deals with environmental waste and the experience of transforming discarded materials into personal emotions. Karen Hampton invokes into cloth the voices and memory of African American women during slavery. Kathy Rousso draws upon her experiences interacting with indigenous peoples of the Pacific Rim to create hand-constructed textile sculpture. A smaller selection of student work is on display in Walker Hall's Design Gallery.

Rhonda R. O'Brien
Program Representative
Department of Environmental Design
rrobrien@ucdavis.edu
(530) 752-6223

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Pesticide Illness/Injury Workshop
Leading authorities in public health, environmental protection and pesticide education will be leading a comprehensive workshop to help rural healthcare professionals and agricultural employers respond to pesticide-related illnesses and injuries. The workshop will be held June 29, 2000, and again on July 13, 2000, in San Luis Obispo. Participants will learn how to recognize pesticide-related illnesses and injuries and methods of reporting incidents. Educational materials will be provided to help develop engaging and effective training programs. Fee: $30. (An additional $20 certificate fee is required for CME credit.)


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Development: Albert DeFreitas
When Albert DeFreitas passed away last December, his attorney notified the university that 20 percent of the residue of his estate was left "to the School of Agriculture at the University of California, Davis, for research in tomatoes or dairy science." His gift to UC Davis exceeds $40,000. DeFreitas also provided scholarships for Hilmar High School graduating seniors majoring in engineering at any college in California and for research in diabetes and/or heart disease.

Rick A. Swantz
Director of Development
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
raswantz@ucdavis.edu
(530) 752-7961

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RFP: California Celery Research
The California Celery Research Advisory Board is soliciting research proposals for the period October 1, 2000, through September 30, 2001. Researchers submitting proposals will be asked to attend a meeting on July 31 in San Luis Obispo to describe proposed research to members of the Celery Board. Deadline: June 30, 2000


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